Digital Commonwealth News & Announcements «

News & Announcements

Originally scheduled to take place Sunday, April 4, a program on the Remarkable Photography of Leon Abdalian at the Jamaica Plain Branch Library has been postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis. While that talk will be re-scheduled at a future time, in the meantime we encourage you to visit Leon’s large body of work accessible via Digital Commonwealth.Born Leon Hampartzoum Abdalian in Armenia, Ottoman Empire in 1884, he came to the US as a 12 year old in 1896.

08_01_A_004620 — *Leon, Lillian,and Marian Abdalian*

The Abdalian family settled in Jamaica Plain, a subject of thousands of his later photographs. A train conductor by day with the Boston Elevated Railway, Leon was largely self-taught and took photographs as a hobby which expanded into a busy sideline. His photos were published in The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Traveler and as a career highlight, in the March 1920 issue of National Geographic magazine.

Besides his beloved hometown of JP, West Roxbury, Milton, Dedham, Lexington, Salem and Gloucester are featured subjects as our family groups in their living rooms, at picnics, weddings, and the Arnold Arboretum. The photos are clean and classically composed, and really fun to browse, especially when compared with the JP of today.

08_01_A_002105 — *Leo J. Costello, 234 South St. Jamaica Plain*

After his death in 1967, his daughter Lilian donated several hundred negatives to the Boston Public Library and his entire body of work was bequeathed to BPL in 2003, a gift of the Arnold P. and Lillian A.Clough estate.

The Digital Commonwealth Board and Conference Committee

invite you to register for:

A Virtual Conference Contextual Conversations:Representation and Digital Practice

Join us for an exciting day as we explore the issues of representation, politics, ethics

and other important aspects of digital collections

with an outstanding group of scholars

When: Tuesday April 7, 2020, 9:00AM-4:00PM Where: Zoom Webinar

Advance registration is required. This event is FREE to all attendees.

Once you register you will receive a Zoom link to the event.

Conference Schedule (subject to revision), changes will be posted to the website.

Conference Schedule

Elaine L. Westbrooks, Vice Provost for University Libraries & University Librarian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will be the Keynote Speaker.

Ms. Westbrooks is a Board Member of the Digital Public Library of America. Her keynote address is titled “Representing the Others: Preserving Evidence and Knowledge for Equity”.

An annual update on the Digital Commonwealth Collection will be presented by Eben English, Digital Repository Services Manager at the Boston Public Library.

There will be two panel discussions on: “Politics, Privacy, and Ethics in Digital Collections”; and “LGBTQ+ Collections in Context: The Politics of Representation”, and presentations on “History of Chinese Students at Phillips Academy”, “Visibility for Disability Digitization Project”, and “Beyond Orality: Digital Preservation and the African Ajami Library”.

08_01_A_004287 — Prairie St. Jamaica Plain

A lot of new content was added in February–must have been the leap year effect! There’s something for everyone with maps, manuscripts, prints and photographs all ready for research and enjoyment. The Leon Abdalian Collection, containing the work of self-taught photogapher Leon Hampartzoum Abdalian reminds me of the Leslie Jones Collection.

Both men turned their lens’ on the people of Boston, Jamaica Plain West Roxbury and surrounding communities and brought ordinary people into sharp focus. Leon and Leslie, good eye! Travel back in time with them via Digital Commonwealth.